


At the End of a Rainbow

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Eureka
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-19
Updated: 2006-12-19
Packaged: 2018-01-25 06:52:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1637534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One year after Kim's death, Henry has a dream. He finds an artifact and begins building something he didn't even know would be possible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	At the End of a Rainbow

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Merlin Missy

 

 

It came to Henry in a dream that he had exactly one year after he had lost Kim. When he got up, he had no idea what it could have meant. He put on his robe, walked to his door to pick up the newspaper, went to his fridge to get himself some orange juice, and looked outside his window to see a big hole in the ground. It was a round one, perhaps fifteen feet in diameter, and looked every bit like a miniature crater.

A crater in his backyard. Of all the possible things he thought could happen to him, this wasn't very high on his list. In fact, if he had had such a list, this wouldn't have been there at all.

He drank the juice and put on the clothes he had hanging on the back of a kitchen chair. Slipping his feet into the boots waiting by the doorway, he thought about the words in the dream.

"If you build it, she will come."

Either it was a stupid cultural reference gone wrong because of his subconscious, or it was a message. Or perhaps it was something completely different. In any case, there was that hole in his backyard, and if it wasn't enough to make him curious, then nothing was.

The wet grass went squish-squish under his boots as he walked to the crater. He squatted right next to it, peering down at the bottom. It wasn't a very deep hole, only two feet or so, and he could reach the bottom if he wanted to. And he did.

In the middle of it all, in the dark pit, there was a very small, round thing. Very much like a marble or a stone. Henry looked up in the sky, wondering where the stone could have come from. Judging by the depth it had made, it most likely wasn't thrown there by a man. Yet, the hole wasn't wide enough for it to be a real asteroid, either. Had it been one of those, the crater in his backyard would have swallowed his house as well, which it had obviously not done.

Peculiar, indeed.

He extended his arm, wanting to touch the orb with his hand but asking himself if it would be safe. It didn't seem too harmful, so he touched it quickly. Nothing happened, the world didn't explode into tiny, rainbow-coloured sparkles, nor did he drop dead on the ground. At that point, the stone seemed relatively safe, so he picked it up.

At a closer inspection he noticed that it wasn't so much a sphere as a polyhedron. It was tiny, less than half an inch, and the colour was something between clear and white, like milk continued with water.

_If you build it, she will come._

Now what on earth did this polyhedron have to do with those words? And who was 'she' the voice was referring to? Henry had no idea.

* * *

Jack was standing in Henry's office, and he had a concerned look on his face. It was the face he used when he was doing his work instead of being a friend.

"We've had some reports concerning last night," he said, and the words were followed by a frown.

"Yes?" Henry asked, thinking of the stone that was now in the pocket of his coat.

"People claim to have seen a shooting star, and according to eyewitnesses this shooting star didn't just pass by across the sky. It came into the direction of your house, and people are saying there's a hole in your backyard."

_Now how the hell did they know that already?_

"Yes, there's a hole, and it was probably caused by some kind of a small asteroid," Henry said, and so far he was speaking the truth. "I went to check on it but there was nothing. Whatever came down from the sky must have vaporized upon contact. That happens quite often."

This, obviously, wasn't the whole truth. Not even close.

"Mind if we go and investigate it anyway?" Jack asked, and Henry wanted him to go away, because he had things to do. Experiment with the stone, for one. So he nodded in agreement.

"Sure, just make sure you don't touch anything inside the house."

"Thanks. We'll let you know if we figure out something new."

"I would appreciate that," Henry said with his best polite voice, knowing that it was highly unlikely they would come up with something Henry didn't already know. But sure, let them examine the place. It would give him a chance to be by himself.

He saw Jack out, noting the humid air left from previous night's rain. The sun was trying to shine and mostly it succeeded. It was when Henry turned around to get back in that he noticed it.

There was a rainbow in the horizon, weak and delicate, but definitely a rainbow.

He knew. He knew that whatever he was supposed to do was connected to the extraterrestrial stone that had come crashing down and a rainbow. It didn't make much sense, but there was no doubt that those two things were important.

Quickly, he rushed inside, locking the door. He went to the bookshelves to search for anything to do with light-related phenomena, be they rainbows, sunlight reflecting off the moon or simple stars. His instinct was telling him that he would find his answers there.

* * *

Henry had three books open on the floor and he was sitting in the middle of them, holding a glass prism in one hand and a laser cutter in the other. He examined the prism from all sides, looking at the pictures in the books, grunting and mumbling as the prism he was holding either managed or didn't manage to meet his requirements. Using the pen laser, he tweaked the piece of glass, every now and then holding it against a beam of light to see the way it reflected the light.

After one and a half hours, he was finally happy with it, and he got up. His knees were a little sore from being bent for so long, but he ignored the pain because there were bigger things going on. In comparison, a bit of pain was nothing.

If only Kim was there with him now. He wanted to share this new, amazing thing with someone, most likely Kim, but she was no longer there. She'd been gone for a year now, to the date, but it felt like she had just been there.

Then he realized what he was doing, what all this meant, and he smiled. It would work, he said to himself. It would have to work.

* * *

It was finished. Well, not quite finished, but close enough that he could go for step two in his project.

"You're going to do what?" Jo asked him with an incredulous expression when he explained his plans.

"I'm going to need the roof of Stark Industry clean and in my personal use from four till five this afternoon. It would also be wise to get people from the top floors out of the building."

"The roof. Of that specific building. May I ask why?"

Henry smiled.

"You may, but I might not tell you."

"You are aware that what you're asking is pretty big, not to mention so random I have to wonder about your sanity?"

Jo smiled as she said this, so it didn't sound quite so harsh, but Henry noticed a hint of actual worry in her voice. He could hardly blame her. Had he been in her situation, he would have been pretty surprised himself.

"Why don't we stop questioning my motives and level of sanity? Just tell me you can do what I asked."

It took a while before Jo answered. Her reply was a quick nod and a sigh. "Fine, I'll go and evacuate the two top floors. If someone explodes, I don't want to be the one responsible."

"Thank you, Ms. Lupo," Henry said with a grin. "Though I promise to try and avoid blowing people up."

Jo only rolled her eyes at him.

* * *

It looked like something a child had built. A pile of metal rods thrown together, some curly steel wiring hanging from here and there, and a small piece of clear glass in the middle, like a lost Christmas ornament. The picture of a mad scientist was complete when Henry took out a plastic bottle filled with water and began spraying water on the roof, creating an illusion of post-rain mist.

"You can still quit this," Jo said. Henry hadn't wanted anyone to join him, because he didn't quite know what was going to happen and what could go wrong, but apparently the only way Jo had managed to evacuate the people from the building was by promising that she would supervise the experiment.

"Yes, but I won't," Henry replied without taking his eyes off the mist. It looked just right. A small rainbow appeared.

Jo was looking at him, once again frowning, but she didn't say anything. Henry knew she wanted to, but she had probably given up on him already.

He walked around the piece of metal junk -- it didn't sound very appealing, but he had to admit that it was just that, a pile of metal junk -- adjusting the prism and checking its angle. According to his calculations and intuition, it had to be in a specific position at a specific time, and if something went wrong he would have to wait until the next day. Thinking about what this metal junk could possibly do, he refused to wait that long.

Then everything seemed to be in perfect order, and he turned to look at Jo. She was holding a gun now, her grip looking quite tight.

"You're not going to shoot anyone with that?" he asked.

"Make sure I won't have to," Jo replied, and Henry couldn't figure out it she meant it or not. Better not risk it, though.

When the prism and the mist were precisely the way they were supposed to be, Henry put his hand in his pocket. In there, he had the strange little polyhedron sent from the skies. He had thought about drilling a hole in it, but then decided against it. Nothing should mar this perfect little treasure. Instead, he picked up one last metal rod and placed it a few feet away from the prism.

"What are you doing?" Jo asked, interrupting his thinking.

"Trying to concentrate," he said. Jo didn't say anything.

_Kim wouldn't ask questions like these. She would understand. She would know just by looking at the angles._

He began to feel restless. What if something went wrong? What if he had interpreted the dream completely wrong? What if he had missed some important detail? There were so many uncertainties, so much guesswork. What if he really was just going insane instead of finding out something incredible that could change the world?

"You should probably stand further away," he said to Jo, actually meaning the words.

Jo looked sceptic but decided to do as she was told.

Henry looked at his watch. Two minutes left. Immediately upon realizing it his heart started pounding faster and he felt adrenaline coursing through his veins. Fight or flight. He would do neither. Unless, of course, things didn't work out and something bad happened. Like the building collapsed, or people were blinded by a super laser intensified by the alien stone.

_It will do no such thing._

He wanted to believe the believer in him, but the scientist part kept coming up with several different worst case scenarios, every one of them nastier than the previous one.

Now. It was four o'clock, sharp, and it was time.

* * *

At first it looked like regular sunshine, because that's what it was. It fell on the prism exactly the way Henry had intended it to, and as he was working on making the rain-like mist, he saw the rainbow. Now, instead of reaching the ground, the rainbow hit the polyhedron. All the colours that had been spread apart were now gathering up in that small little stone, and what came on the other side took Henry's breath away. He heard Jo gasp as well.

"What the hell?" Jo asked, and Henry didn't really know what to say to that, as he wasn't quite sure himself.

It was a rainbow, but it wasn't. It looked like something had taken out oil paints and started painting in the air. The colours that were weak and hazy in the mist were now solid, almost tangible, on the other side of the alien prism. On the end of the rainbow, there was something so bright that neither Henry nor Jo could look at it without their eyes watering and hurting.

There was no sound coming from anything, just a beautiful play of light and colours, and it lasted for a long time. Minutes passed, and Henry lost track of time. He could only pump the spray bottle to get more water and stare at the rainbow.

Finally, it began to fade away, and the bright light looked a little dimmer than before. As the light died out, Henry saw something else in its place. Something dark. Something solid.

"Oh my god," Jo gasped, and Henry heard her gun falling down.

"Is that... Is that Kim?"

Henry couldn't deny it. It looked like Kim. It had to be her.

_If you build it, she will come._

He began to cry.

* * *

Henry was in his workshop, making adjustments to the metal pile. It simply wouldn't do to apply for patent for something as dreadful as this one. Jack was there with him, looking at him working. He said Jo had told him the most salient bits but that he hadn't really believed it all to be true.

"It's quite true," Henry said.

"It defies all the laws of physics, doesn't it?" Jack insisted. "I mean, it's not natural to be able to do something like that."

"Natural or not, it happened."

"Yeah, but..."

"No buts. Kim is back, and if that isn't proof enough for you, then hell, I have no idea what is."

"How can you be sure it's her?"

Henry looked at him for a while, then started laughing and shaking his head.

"What?" Jack asked.

"If you were in my place, you wouldn't ask that."

"Fine. Let's say it's Kim. And hey, if it is, then great. I wish you both all the best."

"Thank you," Henry said, still somewhat amused. Nothing would bring him down now. Nothing.

"So," Jack said in a different tone of voice. "What are you going to do about that thing now that you've got Kim back?"

"I'm thinking of offering it for production. There have to be hundreds of people out there who would like their own personal wish-fulfilling machine."

"Yeah," Jack said hesitantly. "I'm sure there are. So, what are you going to call this amazing machine of yours?"

"I was thinking Rainbow 2000."

"Ah. Simple and catchy. But why two thousand? Does it carry some special meaning?"

"No, I just thought one thousand wouldn't sound impressive enough and three thousand would be pushing it. Two thousand is a nice, round number. Modest, yet appealing."

Jack stared at him in silence.

"Right," he said after a while. "That it is. Listen, I promised to be home when Zoe came back. I'd better go."

Without giving Jack so much as a glance, Henry waved him off. "Tell Zoe I said hi."

Jack backed away, taking a step backwards, then another one, and finally he turned around.

"I'll see you around," he said from the doorway.

Henry was too preoccupied with tweaking his new invention to reply.

* * *

"Hey," came a voice from the door. Before Henry understood it to be a greeting, he had already registered the familiarity of that voice.

"Hey yourself," he said, and he felt his smile widen to idiotic proportions. "How are you?"

Kim was looking a little out of place, which was more than understandable, but otherwise she looked exactly the way she did just before she... Well, before.

"Fine. A little shaky but otherwise pretty normal."

"And you can't remember. Right? About what's happened to you, I mean."

"No, I'm afraid I can't. I feel like I've been in a coma for a year."

That was one way of putting it, Henry thought, except that the coma bit should be replaced with dead. He wasn't sure Kim would be strong enough to handle that just yet.

"But you're back with me now. Things will be fine again," he said, and he wanted to believe he was telling the truth.

Kim smiled, then laughed a little.

"When you say it, I believe it."

Henry walked to him, stopping right in front of her. He put his hands around her face and looked her straight in the eyes. He had missed those lively eyes so much. It was incredible that he was once again able to look at her like this. So close, so... alive.

"Good," he said. "Now, how about some dinner? There's a new place around the corner and they make the most excellent rainbow trout."

"Yeah. I could go for that."

 


End file.
